Datalinks upgrade

[ete]

Conceptsx | Helpx
Concepts, advanced concepts | Everything else       

Those two pages have the original text files which came with the game as well as GooglyBoogly's latest version in the edit history. Though technically publicly editable, it would be nice to check or at least post (here or in the built in chat) if you make changes, so I can keep track of everything and make sure we are following the same principles while editing. Note that there is apparently a bug which makes lines after 1882 not be visible, but you should still be able to copy the text to elsewhere, and hopefully they will resolve it soon.

I am not guaranteeing activity, if I vanish for a few months someone else is welcome to take this over. AC is cool though, and I love the datalinks, so maybe I'll stick around.

Scope of this project:
1. Fix the numerous minor spelling, grammar, and formatting errors.
2. Add missing mechanics details.
3. Check and correct existing mechanics.
4. Move all credits from datalinks entries to the changelog.
5. Apply consistent standards (e.g. capitalization of coined terms).
6. Add missing links.

Syntax
^ - Newline. Literal newlines are ignored, and often required on longer texts, since there's a per-line character limit (you get crashes if you exceed it).
^^ - Center text
{text} - Makes text bold.
$LINK<X=Y> - Link. X is displayed text, Y is the number of the concept you're linking to. Prefixes for various classes of concept (note that double digit numbers seem to erase the last digit of the prefix):
Conceptsx
#CONCEPT: none (e.g. $LINK<Mineral=42>)
#ADVCONCEPT: 1000 (e.g. $LINK<Commerce (Advanced)=10003>, $LINK<Advanced Morale=10017>)
----
Helpx
#UNITDESC: 3000 (e.g. $LINK<probe teams=30006>)
#CHASSISDESC: 4000 (e.g. $LINK<Missile=40008>)
#REACTORDESC: 5000 (e.g. $LINK<reactor technology=50001>)
#WEAPONDESC: 6000 (e.g. $LINK<Tectonic Missiles=60024>)
#ARMORDESC: 7000 (e.g. $LINK<Resonance 3 Armor=70011>)
#ABILDESC: 8000 (e.g. $LINK<Algorithmic Enhancement=80028>)
#HELPTERRALAND: 9000 (e.g. $LINK<farm=90000>)
#HELPFAC: 10000 (e.g. $LINK<Tachyon Field=100005>)
#HELPPROJ: 11000 (e.g. $LINK<The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm=110085>)
#HELPSOC: 12000 (e.g. $LINK<Cybernetic Society=120017>)
#HELPEFFECT: 13000 (e.g. $LINK<GROWTH=130006>)
----
Other
Technologies: 14000 (e.g. $LINK<Advanced Ecological Engineering=140062>)
Factions: 15000 (e.g. $LINK<factions=150001>)

Credit to GooglyBoogly and Rubin for previous versions of this project.

old links

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Conceptsx | Helpx
Concepts, advanced concepts | Everything else       

[ete]

Unanswered:

Partially/questionably resolved:

Answered and info added:

[Buster's Uncle]

How would you like people to help?

[ete]

Most helpful thing would be, once I've got some questions, to find posts where people have tested the mechanic or test it themselves. Also give opinions on style, check over what I'm doing, or if you see something you're sure wants changing then fix it (edit your sync.in name from unnamed first so we can see who did it) and leave a note in the changelog.

[Buster's Uncle]

...I'm pretty accomplished in the written English language, so I guess I'm obligated to add a proofreading pass to my to-do list.  It's a pretty long list, though...

I imagine we can turn up some tech testers for sure, though it might require patience and occasisonal bumps for them to find this project and take interest.  Is sync.in some IRC sort of thing?  I'm not familiar with it.

[Buster's Uncle]

-I have an actual to-do list posted in the Admin Board, and I have now added the proofing pass to it.

[ete]

Ok, cool. Sync.in is a site based on Etherpad, collaborative, real time, all history saved, etc. There are various sites running it, but Sync.in is my favorite currently.

Also, adding to the list of useful things, figuring out more of the link syntax would be cool. I've added some examples to the opening post.

[Buster's Uncle]

We have two CMNs here who might know a little about the syntax, and it's also right up Davyboy's alley.  You should ping him for sure if he doesn't check by soon.

[Buster's Uncle]

Yeah; check out this Modding forum thread of Davy's:  http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=2276.0 where he reports on research into that syntax as affects the text with the SE movies.  He's definitely your boy for that, and I see he's been otherwise occupied for over two weeks - definitely reach out and see if he checks his PM email notifications.

[ete]

Cool topic, but most seems to be decoration only (font, size, color), which I'm not intending to use much. I've finished adding the links sections though. And maybe I'll expand this project to include a few other text documents, like the secret project finishing screens.

[Buster's Uncle]

Sounds great.

AC is a well that one can sip from always and never exhaust.

[Buster's Uncle]

ete - we could use your help.  We're planning to do a news item, ASAP, to promote this worthy project, 'cause we think it's great and important - but neither sisko nor I are feeling inspired about writing the copy.  If you'd post a few remarks we could select quotes from, it would help, and maybe get one of us started.  Please?

[ete]

hm, I've done some more on this today, figured out why it was crashing the datalinks (unfinished Atrocities (advanced) section), but there's not yet a whole lot that it'd be helpful for other people to do just yet (the time slider is broken on Etherpad lite, and classic Etherpad seems to be unable to handle huge numbers of lines cleanly). Once I've got a load of mechanics questions more attention would be great, but 'till then.. I'd kind of prefer not to have people editing. And editing is about the only thing people could do right now, other than encouragement which is non-essential.

Still, for when things are set up, something like:

The datalinks upgrade project has started with the aim of improving the accuracy and consistency of the datalinks and similar files. If you would like to help, please view the list of unanswered questions, or post errors in the thread. There is also a publicly editable pad, but please note all changes in the attached chatbox or the thread.

But, again, I'd prefer not to have the public pad more widely advertised till the timeslider bugs are cleaned up and I can review edits/not overwrite them from my local copy, and there are not yet any mechanics questions.

[Guv’ner]

… I'd kind of prefer not to have people editing. And editing is about the only thing people could do right now, other than encouragement which is non-essential.

The following is a list of corrections I identified in the 1.3 Version of the GooglyBoogly update (line numbers before each change). I use my own spellchecked version of them with no other changes:
conceptsx.txt

• 20 “engnieering” to “engineering”
• 47 “Condensors” to “Condensers”
• 47 “lifiting” to “lifting”
• 63 “addded” to “added”
• 248 “commiting” to “committing”
• 388 “resouces” to “resources”
• 416 “behaviour” to “behavior”
• 682 “avaiable” to “available”
• 766 “planetwide” to “planet wide”
• 782 “annoint” to “appoint”
• 802 “Condensors” to “Condensers”
• 899 “Noncommital” to “Noncommittal”
• 907 “hoplessly” to “hopelessly”
• 957 “Agricultiral” to “Agricultural”
• 963 “independant” to “independent”
• 1005 “raduis” to “radius”
• 1008 “Geonome” to “Genome”
• 1058 “commited” to “committed”
• 1120 “Subract” to “Subtract”
• 1342 “millenia” to “millennia”
• 1363 〃
• 1418 “Condensors” to “Condensers”
• 1422 〃
• 1436 “UN” to “U.N.” to maintain consistency throughout game text
• 1494 “defence” to “defense”
• 1600 “adjecent” to “adjacent”
• 1608 “improvments” to “improvements”
• 1635 “unnocupied” to “unoccupied”
• 1637 〃
• 1642 “succesful” to “successful”
• 1643 “recieved” to “received”
• 1644 “kils” to “kills”
• 1645 “seperately” to “separately”
• 1647 “catured” to “captured”
• 1647 “posseses” to “possesses”
• 1648 “accquired” to “acquired”

helpx.txt

• 14 “discrepency” to “discrepancy”
• 15 “doesnt” to “doesn’t”
• 18 “repurcussions” to “repercussions”
• 38 “pressume” to “pressure”
• 50 “Cantauri” to “Centauri”
• 52 “Centauro” to “Centauri”
• 57 “dont” to “don’t”
• 137 “commited” to “committed”
• 453 “maximim” to “maximum”
• 538 “Vulenrable” to “Vulnerable”
• 538 “Asteriod” to “Asteroid”
• 548 “Vulenrable” to “Vulnerable”
• 558 “sattelite” to “satellite”
• 559 〃
• 561 “Vulenrable” to “Vulnerable”
• 613 “Theatres” to “Theaters”
• 1346 “nurtient” to “nutrient”
• 1497 “enginnered” to “engineered”
• 1706 “UN” to “U.N.”
• 1710 “acquistion” to “acquisition”
• 1735 〃
• 1760 〃
• 1772 〃
• 1810 〃
• 1835 〃
• 1855 “Patterened” to “Patterned”
• 1876 “Explosve” to “Explosive”
• 1877 “acquistion” to “acquisition”
• 1897 “Applique” to “Appliqué”
• 1905 〃
• 1927 〃
• 1948 〃
• 1977 〃
• 2043 “atack” to “attack”
• 2043 〃
• 2048 “baseor” to “base or”
• 2269 “nullifys” to “nullifies”

[Buster's Uncle]

I hope that line 20 correction you lead with is a typo in the post...